Louafi Larbi/Reuters
Supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, protested near a mosque in Cairo on Friday. More Photos »
CAIRO — Facing police officers authorized to use lethal force if threatened, leaders of the embattled Muslim Brotherhood urged followers to take to the streets in a show of “rage” on Friday as the Islamist organization sought to regain momentum after a crushing crackdown by security forces on Wednesday in which almost 640 people were killed.
Under military lockdown, Cairo and other cities braced for more violence after the Friday noon prayers that has been a central trigger for protest since the wave of turmoil once known as the Arab Spring swept through the region beginning in early 2011.
The outcome of the growing confrontation between secular and Islamist forces in Egypt — a contest that could shape the country and the region for years to come — seemed cloaked in uncertainty. “After the blows and arrests and killings that we are facing, emotions are too high to be guided by anyone,” said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad, according to Reuters.
The clash of powerful forces has alarmed many outsiders stunned by the ferocity of the crackdown and fearful of the potential regional repercussions. On Friday, news reports from Paris said President François Hollande consulted Britain and Germany about the crisis, but it was not immediately clear how the situation could be swayed by outsiders’ diplomacy.
On Thursday, some European officials called for a suspension of aid by the European Union, and at least one member state, Denmark, cut off support. The British and French summoned their Egyptian ambassadors to condemn the violence. In Ankara, Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ideological ally of Mr. Morsi’s, called for an early meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what he called a “massacre.”
The Brotherhood, for decades the repository of Islamist sentiment, said it wanted millions to march on Friday to display “the pain and sorrow over the loss of our martyrs.” In a statement, the Brotherhood said the actions of the military-backed interim government against supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi had “increased our determination to end them.”
With their leaders jailed or silent, however, some Islamists reeled in shock at the killings on Wednesday when security forces razed two protest camps where Mr. Morsi’s supporters had been staging sit-ins since his ouster six weeks ago. By Thursday night, health officials had counted 638 dead and nearly 4,000 injured, but the final toll was expected to rise further, in the worst mass killing in Egypt’s modern history.
On Thursday, many of those waiting outside the makeshift morgue talked of civil war. Some blamed members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority for supporting the military takeover. A few argued openly for a turn to violence.
“The solution might be an assassination list,” said Ahmed, 27, who like others refused to use his full name for fear of reprisals from the new authorities. “Shoot anyone in uniform. It doesn’t matter if the good is taken with the bad, because that is what happened to us last night.”
Mohamed Rasmy, a 30-year-old engineer, interrupted. “That is not the solution,” he said, insisting that Islamist leaders would re-emerge with a plan “to come together in protest.” Despite the apparently wide support for the police action by the private news media and much of Cairo, he argued that the bloodshed was now turning the rest of the public against the military-appointed government.
“It is already happening,” he said.
The outcome of the internal Islamist debate may now be the most critical variable in deciding the next phase of the crisis. The military-backed government has made clear its determination to demonize and repress the Islamists with a ruthlessness exceeding even that of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the autocrat who first outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood six decades ago.
How the Islamists respond will inevitably reshape both their movement and Egypt. Will they resume the accommodationist tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood under former President Hosni Mubarak, escalate their street protests despite continued casualties, or turn to armed insurgency as some members did in the 1990s?
Islamists Urge Day of ‘Rage’ in Egypt to Protest Military Action
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